What exactly do you think you are going to prove?

Published July 22nd, 2011 by Bobby Henderson

What exactly do you think you are going to prove? it’s just disrespectful to other human beings faiths and beliefs, and im sure u of all people should know u can’t put any sense into say a devout christian. Honestly, what your doing is the equivalant of making a rude, sarcastic joke to a child that doesn’t understand humor. u cant tell a christian thats been raised from birth to believe that there’s a magic man in the clouds that he’s wrong. you’ll just get what uve been getting, hate mail, and death threats. God is the equivalant of santa exept the child is never told he isn’t real until it’s to late. and u think your doing a good thing by making up this pastafarian crap to prove how absurd the idea of god is. what i don’t think u understand is that u cant argue with idiots about this stuff as most christians are dont know a thing about science.(I apoligize to all respectable christian scientists). as an athiest, im disgusted what youre doing. like making fun of christians being killed by somali’s, and u quoting, "apparently they thought there god could give them safe passage"(yes ive read ur website). really, did it ever, or does it ever occur to you that these people are actually human being’s with family’s and feeling’s, and just because they think the world was created differantly than u, u have to mock them… that’s kind of a dick move. your being no better than they are(religious people) by making fun of and disrespecting other people just ’cause they think differantly than u. oh wait u are religous, u worship a flying spaggetti monster. which means i have the right to ridicule u on how stupid your dumbfuck religion is(oh may the great pasta diety forgive me for my sin) and dont deny that u worship the all mighty pasta king, because your the leader of the church. with the true words of your religion written on a piece of paper. it’s ironic that u, by trying to prove how bad religion is. go about it by u yourself inbodying everything that is wrong with human beliefs. u are everything that is wrong with athiesm. u go around acting all superior and pompus, like u know better than everyone else and tell them why there wrong mockingly. the world would be a better place if u took all your "followers" (butt pirates) got on a pirate ship and ate spaggetti until you all died of overeating.have u ever heard the term live and let live? and i love it how u post all the hate mail u get on a your page to be ridiculed by your cronies( who by the way need to get of the internet and do something productive)yes we all the the bible huggars are gonna say dumb stuff because they’re uneducated. but that doesn’t mean u have to be immature and make fun of there faults so just lay off. even though this message sounds hostile just know i agree with what your’e trying to do (i think) educating people, i just wholly disagree with how u are going about it.

-David

A short response from Bobby:

It’s not our intention to mock or offend anyone. But I realize people sometimes feel mocked or offended.

It might be fair to say that we’re disrespectful. I would agree that most Pastafarians don’t respect the notion that religion should sit on a pedestal. We don’t think that because an action is explained in the context of religion it is exempt from the scrutiny it otherwise would have been subjected to. Religion is not a free pass for crazy ideas and crazy actions.

I would agree that it’s not our place to pass judgment on those who see the world through a lens of religion. But neither is it our place to ignore when personal belief becomes public action. We can accept that some choose to teach their kids the earth is 6000 years old and that dinosaurs are a myth. But if they push for those ideas to be taught in our schools, it’s no longer a question of respecting personal belief.

The idea that rational minded people must be anti-religion is a wrong one, I think. If we must draw a line to divide ourselves, I’d prefer the line be positioned between reasonable and unreasonable people, rather than religious and non-religious people.

It’s one thing to see the world through a lens, and another thing to act as if it’s the only lens that can exist.

I believe there is no group more tolerant of other religious and nonreligious groups than Pastafarians, without question. The death of the Christian sailors by pirates was a sad thing for everyone who heard of it, I’m sure. My hope is that it doesn’t happen again. The hard question is: will criticizing the decision to venture into dangerous areas on the basis of faith help avoid a similar situation in the future? I don’t know the answer. But I wonder how many of their friends and family wish they had shaken them and said this is a bad idea, don’t do this. This is one of the hard questions – this line between respect and concern.

I’ve been back more lately, since the wonderful Austrian event, and have been reading posts but mostly Bobby’s comments, such as those he makes here. Very nice stuff. Very worthy of a true prophet. Hopefully they will help guide the lost back to HIM and temper the opinions of the more aggressive of this enlightened crew.

David, the tone and temperament of your letter scream hypocrisy to me, the language and images you use are at least as thoughtless and offensive as the thing you attempt to criticize.

Yes, you can tell a person raised since birth in a sky-daddy faith that he/she is wrong, but to have any influence you need to simply say it nicely, maybe with a light touch and little humor, and what more could one ask for in to fullfll this need that the simple touch of our noodlely deity?

If those folks who got killed by pirates were there thinking their sky daddy would protect them, then I laugh at this clear-cut example of the delusion which is religion, but not at the the fact that they were killed. Like how I laugh at the story of the missionaries that when into the jungles of Borneo years ago to cover the cannibals, and were eaten by the cannibals. Tragic funny, meaning funny-sad except not funny that those people actually died. If an atheist, such as yourself, walked into a room of drunken redneck atheists, spouted your spout, and got his ass kicked, that would be tragic-funny, too, although your pain and injury would not be. I don’t reserve my laughter for only religious fools.

Those Bible huggers you speak of, many are well educated, but apparently few are thinking. If you are indeed an atheist, your post clearly puts you in with them. Not thinking.

The fact that you think people literally believe in a literal creator-FSM indicates that you are probably the very type of person who believes in a literal creator-sky daddy. I seriously doubt you are an atheist, or if you are, most likely a dogmatic and uninformed atheist, which is really no more interesting than an uninformed and dogmatic theist.

To understand Pastafarianism, read more deeply. Read especially “The Letter”! Then come back here and apologize.

This is a rare beast, an intolerant ‘atheist’.
Does anyone else get the impression that this is a christian hiding behind an atheist identity to try and gain credibility.

And another thing, do these people not have even a basic high school education. I have looked at quite a few of these hate mails and have yet to come across one with correct basic grammar and spelling.

*u cant tell a christian thats been raised from birth to believe that there’s a magic man in the clouds that he’s wrong.*

Point of order Mr Chairman.

You can do exactly that.

The sensible ones will look at the alternatives and make an informed choice to stop believing in fairy tales and grow up.
Leaving the religion of your parents is very much like leaving home. Suddenly you are responsible for yourself. Your actions and choices, that will impact on you and others around you, are your own. Daddy isn’t there to pick up the pieces, or to blame for the things that go wrong.

Do any of these sound familiar?
“It didn’t work out because it wasn’t god’s will.”
“God wants me to be a failure, so there is no point in trying.”
“Instead of working towards a solution for my problems I will pray.”

My parents forced religion on me as much as they possibly could and it just slid right off. Happened to zillions of others I know and read of on this vast Internet of ours. Strange you’ve never been exposed to any of these folks. Maybe we’re all ghosts, or demons, or dust bunnies, or something else easily disproven or swept away.

If one were to believe what Christians profess to believe and study long and hard scriptures and texts – it is possible to say no thank-you. Another heretic is manifest.
Atheism does not work for me – the Divine continues to manifest. I received the calling, miracles happen. God is indeed dead or at least, God comes with baggage, the Divine – as manifest to our consciousness by the FSM – cares not about our lost luggage.

the main purpose of hate-mail is to show how angry you are and upset the reader. but if you mess up your hateful letter will fail at this purpose or EVEN WORSE make the reader laugh at you. So to help avoid such an event, here’s a few tip’s for writing a successful hate-mail letter:

1. Like the guy above me (Poop Johnson) said spell check, and while we’re at it grammar check too. Poor spelling and grammar is the easiest target to mock the hate-mailer.

2. Insults will get you no where. calling someone, “a dumbfuck” for example may seem like a great way to show you’re disdain, but does little for the point you’re trying to make.

3. DO NOT OVER USE CAP LOCK! Typing in all caps is not a great way to display rage, seriousness, or importance. It is however a great way to get ridiculed.

4. Avoid typing in text speak (lol, omg, wtf, and so on…). If the receiver of your hate-mail were to read it out loud the whole letter would sound more like gibberish. Thus making your irate message less powerful.

5. if the reader does reply, don’t expect them to admit fault. It’s almost guaranteed that any reply from the reader will be more rage inducing than what originally upset you.

That’s about it for now. I hope this is helpful to future hate-mailers.

I’m a believer in intelligence and common sense and I’m an atheist, how does that work then? Am I superior to myself? Are believers in intelligence and common sense fundamentally different to atheists? Or do you mean that atheists are superior to believers in respect of intelligence and common sense?

“atheists are superior to believers in intelligence and common sense. And that is a fact!” – No, sir. That is not fact, that is opinion. A factual statement may be “People who score higher in intelligence and common sense are more likely to be atheists”, and then you would be expected to follow that statement with sources to back it up. Your statement implies that anyone who believes in religion automatically has average or below-average intelligence, and I can assure you that is not the case.

True, it takes great intelligence to dupe millions of followers out of billions of dollars.

Rotini Mamasays:

July 23, 2011 at 2:19 PM

While I applaud your intent to promote reason, I must respectfully point out that making broad, sweeping generalizations that are negative and insulting is not an act of reason. Clearly you are angry about the Norway bombing. You have my condolences for the impact this has had on your life. But fighting hatred with hatred only makes the problem worse. You don’t have to agree with organized religion or with spirituality; that’s your right. But is it too much to ask that you not brand everyone from a seven-year-old catechism student to my 78-year-old grandmother (who has done nothing but pray for me, even when she disagrees with me) as terrorist killers?

Unless you’re just yelling about all this stuff to be ironic, in which case, you just make me sad.